I've almost been here for a whole week. It's unbelievable. I have been doing so much each and every day. On my first day me and the six other girls who were here went into the city of Brisbane and ventured. It was very fun! We got rained on and everything! Most of everyone arrived the following two days. I live in a room with twelve girls. There are 5 Americans, 3 Swiss, 2 English, 1 Norwegian, and 1 German. haha There are a lot of people in a very small amount of space, but so far so good. Everyone seems to get along very well, but then again we haven't spent very much time in our rooms yet. I'm not too worried. Thursday night we had our welcome dinner and then worship afterwards. I loved it! Friday we had orientation most of the day. Saturday, we had service project type things in the morning and then left for our weekend retreat. The point of the retreat was to get to know everyone better in the school (almost 50) and why they ended up here, now. We shared testimonies most of the weekend. (haha they can take a long time, let me tell you.) But it's wonderful. Lots of tears and lots of laughs. I can already tell how much closer it has brought us all. It's funny how much time I find myself just being with people. Multiple times I have ended up just sitting at a table with a group of people and before we know it four hours have past. The rest of the retreat just consisted of meals, hanging out and lots of jam sessions (that's what you get when you put loads of artistic people in a room together for an extended amount of time together). And before I knew it, I was here, on Monday evening!
It is amazing to me how big God is. I have loved watching all these different cultures come together. At the moment, a lot of our conversations consist of us all just talking about accents and different words that we all use for certain things. But I love that what it comes down to is that we are all here simply because of our passion for Christ. Can you comprehend how amazing that is? Me and a boy from Sweden who have nothing in common can be together and celebrate the beauty of God. I love it. I have loved the testimonies. It is so bonding to hear about someone who lives thousands of miles away going through the same struggles as you. Or hearing about how someone has seen God work miracles and turn their life around. We serve a God who is so much bigger than us. Praise Jesus for that.
I haven't had much time to process much of what I've been thinking, but hopefully by next week it will be better. I've just been provided with SO much information and knowledge and so many changes. I definitely need some more me and God time to work through it all in my head. I love the people and know that some of these people will become my dear friends for the rest of my life. God is going to do great things... I can't wait to see what those are.
